Badiane

Cheese straws - the puff pastry kind...and if you make them a little wider, say a full centimeter, they come out like a big puffy cheese cookie....they flip themselves on the side so the puff happens right to left rather than top to bottom, if that makes sense. Savory cheesecake tarts? Chili, cheese or sausage studded corn breads? Mini Irish Soda Breads? Quick breads like Asiago, Apple and Rosemary loaf? Oooo...I know...my mom makes this thing, in low german it's called fleishpershki...or meat peroshki...it's a yeast dough, like a bun, filled with whatever you have on hand...some leftover ground meat and potatoes, or stew or roast beef or whatever. I guess it's kind of like a kolachy. That would be good...I would buy those!

Sometimes the L&P produced in the States is made with HFCS...your best bet is to purchase it either at a store that imports it from Worcester in GB (that's pronounced Wuster, btw, and it's Wuster-sure if you want the whole pronunciation) or to buy it in Canada, where they use the original recipe. I have bottles of the stuff sent both from England and bought here in Canada...I would be happy to post ingredients when I get home if anyone is interested.

Happy Days has a shop in Chilliwack...lots of selection from many vendors, primarily goat cheeses...but a huge selection of imported stuff as well. Heavenly Cheese 7350 A Barrow Road, Chilliwack, BC V2R 4J8 Phone: 604-823-7241 www.goatcheese.ca For straight up BC Cheese, I highly highly recommend: The Farm House Natural Cheeses 5634 McCallum Road Agassiz, BC V0M 1A1 604-796-8741 www.farmhousecheeses.com Debra Amrein-Boyes is the Cheesemaker. she produces handmade artisanal cheeses from the farm's cows and from local goats milk. She has... Cheddar, Gouda, Brie, Camembert, Coulommiers, Country Morning, La Pyramide, Feta, St. George, Chevre, Fromage Frais, Cream Cheese and Creme Fraiche, amongst other things. She also has a small gift shop and sells gelato. In the summer she has other specialty food from the surrounding area as well. She's got some really wonderful stuff going there.

I started cooking with quince last year...it's very hard to work with...all that fuzz and you can't tell what is what - hard bits, seeds etc. It's got a lot of pectin, so I would imagine any curd would be a bit jelly like. When I was making quince paste, I found that it really didn't break up, it was very applesauce like and I had to do some mashing, but after about 4 hours of cooking it was a paste. I would push it through a fine mesh tho...there are all kinds of nasty little hard bits in there that are unpleasant to find between your teeth (at least mine was that way) If you are interested in making some other things, I have a number of recipes...quince paste is quite costly to buy - my husband and I figured, based on a retail price, that I made close to $500 worth in an afternoon for about 12 dollars in quince. This year I am moving on to Fuyu persimmons...see what I can make with those!

It is very good...just don't do what I did the first time I made it. That is ONE Chipotle pepper, not ONE CAN Chipotle peppers. My family is still laughing at me over that one.

Anita's Organic Mill out here in Chilliwack sells a very nice stone ground whole wheat flour that works well in my recipe...I know you pass through pretty often - she has a small shop on the grounds of the mill, which is an easy pull off from the highway - Lickman Road, go left, then left at the bottom of the overpass...can't miss it. You can get her stuff at Hofstedes also, probably more reliable hours and pretty good coffee...take the exit after Lickman toward the mall...screech over three lanes of traffic and turn left at the first light, follow the curve, it's right across from Future Shop, next to Bibles for Missions.

Really? last time I was at T&T I didn't say any at all! I will have to have another look as that would be the closest asian market to me. ← It comes on one of those styro trays, covered in plastic...but then again, doesn't everything at the T&T? I generally find it in with the chili peppers, if that helps you at all. If you are at the Surrey store, it's generally on the veg table closest to the meat department.

Well, I have a piece of paper proclaiming me to be a 'chef'. Went to school, worked like a dog, wrote the test, got the paper. I was proud to have earned the right to wear the jacket, and I salute the women and men who put it on every single day and pursue that career. I've never had a harder job. I may have been marginally successful at it, but you soon learn that there is indeed a line between cook and chef. I know which side of the line I came down on, so I left the business. I'm a cook. A really good one. I'm proud of that. I heard an old joke the other day: What is the difference between a cook and a chef? Chefs don't have tattoos. Of course everyone has tattoos now, but you get the jist of it

Badiane, which store was that, if you don't mind me asking. TIA ← I got mine at an the HY Louie store here in Chilliwack...but I assume HY Louis has places all over the lower Mainland and most restaurant supply places I have been to have had them...not always at that price, but not for a lot more.

I get my galanga at the T&T market in Surrey....the closest asian market to Chilliwack. I would assume it's widely available at the T&T everywhere.

It probably is just melted chocolate...it's like bark, only with candy canes instead of nuts. I make it every Christmas. Dead easy. Just melt some good quality chocolate, stir in a handful of crushed canes, drop onto parchment and sprinkle with more candy canes. I mean no offence, and certainly understand you wanting to make him something nicer than melted chocolate with crushed candy canes, but seriously, if the boss thinks it's melted chocolate, why do you want to complicate your life searching for something else? If it's chocolate he wants, lay it on him He's not going to know or appreciate the difference, is he? You could spend days searching, hours making, and he's just going to say 'Oh, I thought it was just melted chocolate'. Save your extra effort for those you know will appreciate it.

I have no idea...but it has just answered a question that has been nagging me for several years...no wonder I can't make sugared nuts like my mom! Jeeezzz...damn no stick pans. Never occured to me.

I am so making my husband go on a forced march to Richmond! Great tip...I can't wait to find this place. I purchased a 'sleeve' of chinese takeout boxes, plain white, at a restaurant supply store - I got 100 of them for 6 dollars. They have all manner of boxes and containers worth checking out.

I see vats of uteri at the chinese market...I always wonder what to do with it...not that I personally would do anything with it, but if you were so inclined, what would you make? As for the duck tongues, just as an interesting aside, I have a friend who is a duck farmer and he tells me that he makes the bulk of his income from the tongues and the unhatched eggs. The meat itself doesn't bring in as much cash. Hmmmm. Then why is it so expensive?

Good God. There's a mix?????? Really? Gawd, there are whole sections of supermarkets that I never go into...and now I know why.

Are they having someone serve the cake? You could make it, ice it, freeze it and slice it frozen then let it thaw...that would give you neat edges. Are they throwing them on a table for people to help themselves? If they are amenable to this suggestion it might work better if that is the scenario...make the cake and cut it up, then just pipe a frosting swirl on each square and garnish with a strawberry. That way each individual dessert will look nice on the plate.

Oh boy...the famous nap...if I had a nickel..... Since we have already had thanksgiving, I can report that this year she was supposed to bring the sweet potatoes...which she then palmed off on my brother and he had to make them. She managed to stay awake this time, but her teenage daughters did not...and then at the end of the meal, she and they all decided to have an uproarious game of 'let's see how far into our mouths we can shove Grandma's antique wine glasses' in spite of the fact we had requested that all was kept low key due to my parents age and infirmities. I love my brother but his family is a total gong show. Oh, and that bottle of wine she brought? Six bucks at the corner booze shop. Nice. And she took it home with her. Dinner was otherwise great...especially the part where they left early.

I make my own...it's dead easy and takes about 15 minutes, start to finish. I don't use egg whites, so they last longer. You can also flavor them with things to make them more 'gourmet'. I like mint or orange ones in hot chocolate. I make coconut ones for my dad...the possibilities are endless. PM me and I will send you the recipe, if you like. As for buying them...only place I have ever seen them is a Williams and Sonoma in Seattle, but if anyone knows where tiny sugar bombs are hidden in Vancouver, it's Ling...I would call Sen5es and check it out!

If you bake two sturdy bundt cakes - the classic shape, you can put one upsidedown and the other on top of it to form a pumpkin, then ice it orange and make a stem and leaves and whatnot. I make shortbread or sugar cookies shaped like a finger with a whole almond for a fingernail...drizzle a little 'blood' in the appropriate spots and it's fairly gross. Little bocconcini balls with olive slices make dandy 'eyeballs'....I use beet juice for the veins. Check out Martha Stewart...she has some very good ideas in her hallowe'en magazine.

Last night I discovered peanut butter from 2003 in my fridge...came with us from our old apartment! We clearly aren't big pb eaters. My mother has a can of cayenne pepper that she bought for 10 cents a month after she got married. In 1948. She won't throw it out and it is still half full. She says 'it's still good, we just don't like it'. Alrighty then. She's not the least bit senile, so I trust that she isn't using it...although the devilled eggs at the last gathering were a little spicy After I got married two years ago, I bought a can of cayenne pepper...same brand as Mom's...I intend to keep it all the days of my married life, as a keepsake and remembrance of my parents long and happy life together.

Gelatin powder is available in most any grocery store...it is made by Knox...using it rox, just don't spill it on your sox and please, don't try to feed it to a fox. It probably tastes funny with lox. It comes in a bright orange box. Inside the box are little sachet of gelatin and instructions on how to rehydrate it. I really need to get a hobby or something.

Gelatin sheets make dandy windows for a Gingerbread House, for all you industrious Christmas bakers out there

Hmmmm....I didn't realize we shared a sister-in-law...boy, she really gets around! Is is just us, or does everyone have one?

They used to have one of those at Costco in Abbotsford...mesmerizing. They removed it to make room for more premade salad or some such schlock that I will never purchase. Grrrrrr. Woodward's Fine Foods still makes some pretty decent doughnuts, but we only make them once or twice a year on very special occasions. Of course Woodward's Fine Foods is my kitchen, and when I say we, I mean my husband and myself... But we are the Woodwards, and the food is very fine, so I lay claim to the name

Did you already catch one or are you just hoping you will get lucky? Been down there all bleedin' weekend and nary a bite....so good luck to you As for the jello salad, I don't think anyone but mom and I actually eat it...but it's a nostalgia thing and you have to have it on the plate...unless you forget it in the fridge, like we almost always do Forgetting the jello salad gets almost as many laughs as the time my mom served mincemeat with rum sauce instead of her Christmas pudding. She's still ticked at us all for eating it without saying a word - she would have put it back in the jar and used it for a pie the next year!